George Fraska (Hosni) (born August 3, 1975) is a songwriter and producer, who was born in Monrovia, Liberia, Africa. He is known for his role as lead vocalist, guitarist, and drummer for several underground bands such as Startled Calf, The Smiley Kids, Four!, the Scooterz and many other projects. Including an Operation Ivy coverband called The Freeze Up's and a Minor Threat coverband called Minor Treat.
Biography
Fraska is a multi-instrumentalist who plays drums, keyboards, bass, and guitar. In 1991, when he was 16, Fraska founded his first official band, Startled Calf, as drummer along with his friends Ralph Jasso, Omar Rodríguez-López, and Jimmy Hernandez. The band was only around for a couple years but accomplished much in the local scene.[clarification needed] Band members later went on to start other successful projects. The first Startled Calf releases were on cassette.[1]
FOUR! ended in 1997 and Fraska started The Smiley Kids.[4][5] After some touring the band recorded their first album, Still smilin' after all these years. The band was gaining momentum[clarification needed] and was offered a record deal by several record labels. The band eventually decided on one of the labels and hit the studio to record their 2nd album, "Don't Get Bored". The band toured with many bands including Switchfoot, Five Iron Frenzy, Ghoti Hook, The Blamed, and many others (see 5 Minute Walk).[6][7]
In 2002, a couple years after the Smiley Kids ended, Fraska along with his wife Misty on bass guitar, decided to start yet another project, The Scooterz,[8][9] with some experimental songs he had previously recorded under the names Echo System and the Mad Haberdasher. The Scooterz was a new direction musically experimenting with and mixing punk, new wave, ska, surf, industrial, and many other different genres.[10][11] Fraska is working on some new projects as well as re-releasing older out-of-print Red Ear Records releases, including some rare and unreleased recordings.
